Jacob Riis Park
Jacob Riis Park, also called Jacob A. Riis Park and Riis Park, is a seaside park on the southwestern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It lies at the foot of the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, east of Fort Tilden, and west of Neponsit and Rockaway Beach. Originally run by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it later became part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and is managed by the National Park Service. It features an extensive sand beach along the Atlantic Ocean coastline and several historic Art Deco structures.
In 1912, the city, urged on by social journalist Jacob Riis, acquired the land for a park initially called Seaside Park and later Telawana Park. In 1914, the park was renamed for Riis. During World War I, the site was used as the Rockaway Naval Air Station, one of the first naval air stations in the United States and, in 1919, the launching point for the first transatlantic flight. The Art Deco-style bathhouse was built in 1932, but much of the park's infrastructure and approaches were built between 1936 and 1937 by New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, who envisioned it as a getaway for New York City residents, like Jones Beach State Park further east on Long Island. The park was built along with the Marine Parkway Bridge and the Belt Parkway in nearby Brooklyn, which provided access to the park.
After a period of decline, Jacob Riis Park was transferred in 1974 to the control of the National Park Service. The Jacob Riis Park Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. The Neponsit Beach Hospital, which occupied part of the park's site, was razed in 2023. In addition to the bathhouse, the park contains a north–south central mall; a boardwalk to the north of the beach; a large parking lot; an 18-hole golf course; and several sporting fields. The beaches at Jacob Riis Park, on the south side of the Rockaway peninsula, consists of 15 bays on the Atlantic coast.
Name
The park was originally known as Seaside Park. It was later renamed Telawana Park after Culluloo Telewana, who was believed to be the last surviving member of the Rockaway Lenape tribe until his death in 1818. A monument to Telawana stands in Woodsburgh, Long Island, east of Far Rockaway. In 1914, the park was renamed for Jacob Riis, a famous New York City muckraker journalist and photographer who documented the plight of the poor and working class.History
Early years
What is now the site of Jacob Riis Park on the western Rockaway Peninsula was under water as recently as the early 19th century. The peninsula was gradually expanded westward by the natural accretion of sand from tidal action. By 1878, the peninsula extended as far as the current western boundaries of the park. The peninsula reached its current extents by the turn of the 20th century. During the War of 1812, the United States Army erected a blockhouse west of the future park site, on what was then an island. It was demolished in 1818.In 1880, the New York, Woodhaven & Rockaway Railroad opened a railroad line between mainland Queens and the Rockaways, with a terminal in Rockaway Park. In 1879 with the railroad under construction, several New York businessmen formed the Rockaway Beach Improvement Company and drafted plans to create a landscaped park and amusement area in the western Rockaways. This development would include hotels and a horse racing track. At the approximate location of modern Riis Park would be a pavilion for beach-goers. The company purchased of land between what are now Rockaway Park and Breezy Point, and later purchased 750 additional acres farther east. Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, was contracted to survey the site. Part of one hotel, called the Rockaway Beach Hotel or the "Hotel Imperial", was opened in August 1881, with other hotels following it, but the park plans never materialized as the park company had gone bankrupt. This incomplete hotel was demolished by 1889. A streetcar line running across the peninsula, operated by the Ocean Electric Railway, opened in 1897, with its western end past Beach 149th Street within the modern park site.
Acquisition of park property
In 1900, the property that would later would become Riis Park was acquired by Edward P. Hatch as part of two lots totaling in size. The first plot, the "Hatch Tract," was while the second "Bell Harbor tract" was. The land consisted predominantly of marshland and meadows yet to be developed. From 1902 to 1903, the City of New York initially attempted to create a seaside beach park in Staten Island. In 1904, the city planned to build an oceanside park in the western Rockaways near Rockaway Point, supported by Jacob Riis' Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. The Association, as well as New York City Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. and Bellevue and Allied Hospitals president John W. Brannon, also lobbied for a hospital and "convalescent home" to be established. In March 1906, Hatch expressed interest in selling the "Hatch tract", with an asking price of $1 million. On May 15, 1906, an act was passed in the New York State Legislature allowing for the purchase of beach property in or outside of the city for a maximum of $2.5 million. The act also allowed a portion of the property to be leased for the creation of hospitals. The Hatch tract was favored over other potential locations such as Coney Island and Staten Island, due to its large beach area continuously extended by tidal action, and beaches and surf of higher quality than the other sites. Because Hatch was offering the property at a much higher price than its appraised value of $200,000, the city sought to acquire the site via condemnation. Efforts to develop the park, then called Seaside Park, and the hospital were suspended on November 1, 1907, due to the panic of 1907, but resurrected in 1909 after campaigning from citizens and philanthropic groups.Following the death of Hatch in 1908, the Hatch tract was acquired first by the West Rockaway Land Company. It was then sold to the Neponsit Realty Company, which was developing the Neponsit neighborhood. Now valued between $850,000 and $1.05 million, the Neponsit Company offered to sell the site for $1.5 million. Meanwhile, the New York Parks and Playgrounds Association campaigned for the city to purchase land for a park in western Rockaway. The Parks Association created a Seaside Park Committee, with the social reformer Jacob Riis as its chairman. The tract was acquired by the city on March 21, 1912 via condemnation, with the city paying around $1.3 million for the site. Around this time, the park was renamed Telawana Park. On March 25, 1913, the tract was transferred to the New York City Parks Department. The site for the hospital at the east end of the beach was transferred from the Parks Department on April 24, 1913.
After Riis died in May 1914, former United States President Theodore Roosevelt advocated for the renaming of the park to Jacob Riis Park. The name change was approved on January 4, 1915. Neponsit Beach Hospital for Children opened on April 16, 1915. Beginning in late 1915, jetties were installed along the beach in order to prevent beach erosion, and to capture sand from tidal action in order to extend the beach. The jetties were based on similar structures used in nearby Neponsit. By 1917, of land were added to the beach.
The original plan for the park was created by Parks Department landscape architect Carl F. Pilat in 1913. Pilat was the nephew of Ignatz Anton Pilát, and had also designed Astoria Park around the same time. Pilat's design would have deviated significantly from the current layout. Much of the property north of Rockaway Beach Boulevard would have been developed into recreational space with fields and courts for sports. Pilat's layout of the park utilized Beaux-Arts planning, characterized by pedestrian pathways organized in an axial arrangement, with focal points at the southern beach "esplanade", and at a bandstand at the north end of the park. The Jamaica Bay coastline at the north end of the site would have been utilized for an additional beach and boardwalk, along with a marine basin for boats, and a lagoon. In addition to the space on the Atlantic Ocean coast used by Neponsit Hospital, an additional tract on the west end of the beach would be utilized for a second health facility; only one-third of the beach would have been part of the park. The Parks Department had held a contest in 1913 accepting submission of designs for the park. Pilat's plan incorporated elements of the six finalists in the competition. At the time, the Pilat plan was considered too expensive and was not implemented. Because of this and the onset of World War I, Riis Park remained largely undeveloped into the 1930s.
Similar Beaux-Arts planning would later be incorporated into the fairgrounds of Flushing Meadows during the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Use as a military base
In 1917, with the emergence of World War I, the park site was leased to the United States Navy to create Naval Air Station Rockaway, one of the first naval air stations in the country. A permit was issued by the Parks Department to the federal government on April 16, 1917, with allotted to the base. The station began operations on October 15 of that year. An additional were ceded to the station in March 1915. The now- base extended from Fort Tilden east to the location of the modern bathhouse. The station would be used as the departure point for the first transatlantic flight in 1919, accomplished by the Glenn Curtiss-designed NC-4. By the time the base was complete, the remaining of the park had little development occurring.On January 20, 1921, US Navy Rear Admiral James H. Glennon requested that the city cede the site to the federal government in order to maintain the naval station. The request was initially refused, but the dispute continued on for the rest of the decade. The station was inactive from 1922 to 1925 and became an armory for the New York Naval Militia from 1928 to 1929. The dispute finally ended in 1930, when the Navy moved to facilities in Valley Stream, Long Island, North Beach Airport, and later Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn directly across from Riis Park. The base was vacated by June 1930, and demolition of the base was ordered in October 1930.